I had the wonderful opportunity to speak with environmentalist and radio host Alex Smith about my new book, Change the World with Service Learning. I appreciate how he is bringing the power of service learning to parents, environmentalist and community activists, so we can support it in our schools and communities.  You can hear the whole show here. Enjoy!

Katy Farber who authored Non-Toxic Kids and Why Teachers Quit and How We Might Stop the Exodus has added another solution for the world’s ills with her new book, Change the World with Service Learning.

“Service learning is a learning tool to empower students to solve problems in their own communities, or even globally. It is a student-driven process, where students learn about a particular issue, place, or problem, then figure out how to take action in a positive way. Then they actually do it.” [emphasis mine] Katy goes on to tell how students do the research, make calls, write letters, and solve problems… ultimately sharing the outcome with their communities.

Click here to read the whole review.

Listen:http://www.educationnowhermes.com/

Comment: hermes@pacific.net

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Change the World with Service Learning – How to Organize, Lead and Assess Service-Learning Projects is Katy Farber’s new book. Katy is a fifth and sixth-grade teacher from Vermont.  She also writes a popular parenting blog about green living called Non-Toxic Kids.

A documentary film by Noodlehead Network called “Is This Going to Be on the Test? Place-Based Learning: Kids Exploring Their Own Community” was created about the service-learning projects completed by Katy Farber’s students in 2002. Katy writes that her students have located and preserved habitats, built community gardens, set up all-school composting and recycling programs, created numerous field guides, written and illustrated children’s books with science themes, and created and performed plays to teach younger students about science, history and culture.

Do you want to see improved school attendance, lessened dropout rates, increased standardized test scores and academic performance, improved attitudes, a better sense of responsibility and civic engagement in our students?  Then you won’t want to miss this discussion with Katy Farber.

Contact Information for Katy Faber:

http://katyfarber.com

http://www.whygreatteachersquit.com/

http://www.non-toxickids.net/

I hope you will be able to join me for the launch, but if not, you can download free and/or listen any time after the launch, at our website.

Education Now! is a production of The Hermeneutic Institute for Wholistic Health & Education, a 501c3 non-profit corporation.

Education Now’s broadcasts are listed in the events calendar on the American Montessori Society website at:http://www.amshq.org/regionalGroupsEvents.htm

Athena Melville – host

EDUCATION NOW!

Why should we care about service learning?  Because it can keep kids in school, improve their grades, attendance, attitude, civic engagment, and sense of responsibility.  In short, service learning can help close the acheivment gap that exists in American schools and connect kids to their communities.

The book is now available right from the publisher, and soon on Amazon and other online retailers.  Want a review copy for your website, blog, or course?  Just shoot me an email at farbud (at) comcast (dot) net.

Change the World with Service learning is now available for pre-order from Rowman Littlefield Press, and from most online retailers.

The book will be released this December, 2010.